Help Section from FirstClass
Web Publishing
About the Web Publishing folder
The Web Publishing folder on your Desktop is the place to put material (web pages) that you want others to view using their web browsers. FirstClass publishes the contents of Web Publishing on the web.
In addition to regular web pages, you can publish lists of uploaded files, blogs, podcasts, and calendars. You can organize this material into folders, and you determine the order in which pages appear.
The left pane lists the contents of your Web Publishing folder in a tree view. The right pane displays the web page that is selected in the left pane.
About your web site's structure
The tree view in your Web Publishing folder controls the structure your web site will have. All objects directly under Web Publishing (as opposed to inside a folder) will be displayed in a navigation bar on your home page. Their order in FirstClass is the same as their order on your web site.
To change the order, simply drag the objects in the tree view. You can also drag objects into and out of folders.
To change the name of your entire web site, click once on your main Web Publishing icon, then go to File-->Get Info
Defining your home page
The first object in the tree view that isn't a folder or a link is automatically your home page.
Changing your web site's overall appearance
Your web site's general appearance (colors, navigation bars, and so on) is controlled by a template. To see what your web site looks like by default, click View in Browser. You can give certain objects that you create for your web site a difference appearance.
To change your web site's overall appearance:
1 Click Appearance.
2 Select the template you want your web site to use.
To see what your choice looks like, click View in Browser.
Hiding unfinished pages
If you are working on a web page and don't want it visible on your web site until you are finished, you can hide it from visitors to your web site. To do this, unapprove it. This page won't show up in your web site's navigation bar.
When you are ready to publish this page, approve it.
To create a page for your web site:
1 Open Web Publishing.
2 Open the folder in which you want this page, if necessary.
3 Click New Web Page.
4 Select the template you want your web page to use.
5 Add and format the web page content.
Replace any placeholder content with your own. You can choose File > Save whenever you want to be sure your work is saved.
6 Click Save and Close when you are done.
You will be asked to supply a web page name.
 NotesBefore you close the web page, you can give it a name (to appear in the navigation bar) and a title (to appear in the title bar), plus keywords to assist someone doing a site search.
If you have changed your mind about the folder in which you want this web page, choose File > Save As. This allows you to specify a location as well as a name.
To check your web page on the web, click View in Browser with the web page selected.
Adding Weblinks to your web pages
There are several ways to add External Weblinks
1. Type in the address if know. such as:
A. You do not HAVE to to type the complete address for it to work properly. http://www.cnn.com
B. Once you type the address, move your mouse over the link. It should change to a pointing hand
2. Open your web browser (Safari, Firefox, Exporer) to the desired page
A. Have your FC class web page open too
B. In your web browser, Hilight then Copy the entire address of the web page
C. Go to FC, then Paste the address
D. If you Drag the URL into FC you might see a red arrow with a blue underlined link (e.g.kids )
E. Don't worry, this is just the name of the web page. You can carefully highlight the words and type what you want it to look like. Be sure to keep the red arrow.
F. This is good if you do not want to display the full web site address.
G. This takes practice
3. Create the links in your Bookmarks folder, then create a web folder in Web Publishing. Copy or move the links to your web folder.
A. This is the official party line from FC.
4. If you see a Links Dialog Box, don't use it. It doesn't work as advertised, except for adding Markers.
Inserting and editing images
There are several ways to insert an image into a FC web page. FYI: When you insert an image in FC, it converts it to another file type. (.png)
1. You can drag an image file from your desktop or a even a web browser onto the FC page.
2. You can Copy/Paste an image
3. You can can go to Edit--> Insert --> Insert File or use the same drop-down menu on the formatting toolbar
To edit the image to you need to get to the Format Image dialog box. You can get there 4 different ways:
1. Select the image, then go to Format --> Format Image
2. Select the image, then click, "command-M"
3. Select the image, then right-click to get the drop down menu
4. Select the image, the formatting toolbar will change. Use the Drop-Down menu to Format--> Format Selection
From the Format Image Dialog Box you can change the size and the Alignment
Notes
There are more advanced way of placing images and text. Please see a Tech-Team member for details
[Link]
What is a Listing Folder?
You would want to create a Listing Folder (often called a "Container" in FirstClass jargon) if you wanted students/parents to download or view non-FirstClass documents.
Examples of use:
Store PDF or Word files that you want visitors to download. Or create a photo gallery using thumbnails. Or allow students to view QuickTime movies or listen to .mp3 files.
To create a listing folder:
1 Open Web Publishing.
2 Open the folder in which you want your listing folder, if necessary.
3 Click New Web Page.
4 Select Listing Folder.
5 Open the listing folder.
6 Click View in Browser to see the default appearance of your listing folder.
7 Change the appearance, if desired.
Click Appearance, then select the template you want your listing folder to use. You can view your choice by clicking View in Browser.
8 Change the default listing folder name, if desired.
9 Upload any files you want to appear in this listing folder.
You can change a file's name or other properties, if desired. To do this, select the file, then open its properties.
Note
You will only see the listing folder's contents in the tree view, not in the right pane.
How others can access your web site
When you view your web site by clicking View in Browser, your web browser's address field displays your web site's URL.
This is the address to give others so they can access your web site.
or you can give them:
or
Creating blogs
A blog is an online diary to which you add dated entries. You first create a blog to hold your blog entries, then you create blog entries inside it.
To create a blog for your web site:
1 Open Web Publishing.
2 Open the folder in which you want your blog, if necessary.
3 Click New Web Page.
4 Select Blog.
5 Open the blog.
6 Click View in Browser to see the default appearance of your blog.
7 Change the appearance, if desired.
Click Appearance, then select the template you want your blog to use. You can view your choice by clicking View in Browser.
8 Change the default blog name, if desired.
How others can access your blog
FirstClass blogs support RSS feed readers, so others can subscribe to your blog. FirstClass RSS support does two things on your blog page when viewed on the web:
• adds a subscribe button
People who have a browser that displays this button can simply click it to subscribe to your blog.
• adds an XML button.
Some browsers can't display the subscribe button. People with one of these browsers can hover their cursor over the XML button. This displays the URL to use for accessing your blog.
To create an entry in your blog:
1 Open the blog.
2 Click New Blog Entry.
3 Add and format the entry's content.
You can choose File > Save whenever you want to be sure your work is saved.
4 Click Save and Close when you are done.
You will be asked to supply a name for your entry.
Note
Before you close the entry, you can give it a name. The entry is automatically dated today. You can click the date if you want to change it.
To check your entry on the web, click View in Browser with the blog selected.
Creating podcasts
A podcast is a collection of audio or video tracks or clips (episodes). You first create a podcast to hold your episodes, then you create your episodes inside it.
To create a podcast:
1 Open Web Publishing.
2 Open the folder in which you want your podcast, if necessary.
3 Click New Web Page.
4 Select Podcast.
5 Open the podcast.
6 Click View in Browser to see the default appearance of your podcast.
7 Change the appearance, if desired.
Click Appearance, then select the template you want your podcast to use. You can view your choice by clicking View in Browser.
8 Change the default podcast name, if desired.
Providing more information about podcasts
FirstClass podcasts support RSS, so that they can be served to the iTunes Music Store. You can add more information about your podcast, such as album art, a copyright statement, and update frequency, that can be used by the iTunes Music Store. To do this:
1 Select the podcast.
2 Click Edit Podcast Details.
To create an episode for your podcast:
1 Open the podcast.
2 Click New Episode.
3 Add the audio or video content.
Drag an audio or video file to the Podcast Episode form.
To check your episode on the web, click View in Browser with the podcast selected.
You can create a FirstClass-type calendar for your web site.
You add calendar items just as you do to your personal calendar.
Note
You must add calendar items using the calendar in Web Publishing. The version on your web site is read only.
To add a calendar to your web site:
1 Open Web Publishing.
2 Open the folder in which you want your calendar, if necessary.
3 Click New Web Page.
4 Select Web Calendar.
5 Open the calendar.
6 Click View in Browser to see the default appearance of your calendar.
7 Change the appearance, if desired.
Click Appearance, then select the template you want your calendar to use. You can view your choice by clicking View in Browser.
8 Change the default calendar name, if desired.
Issues with old web site content & Switching to web publishing
If you used a pre-8.3 FirstClass client to create web site content, you are free to do nothing, and your content will continue to render on the web. You can add more content just as you always have.
Caution
If you don't want to use the new web publishing application, don't click the Appearance button. Clicking this button tells FirstClass to use the new web publishing features for this container, and your web pages won't display as you expect.
But you won't be able to use the full power of the web publishing application. For example, you won't be able to view your content on the web directly from the client, or apply appearance templates.
You also need to know that any HTML pages won't take on the navigation bars or other formatting provided by the templates. These pages will basically be standalone pages in your site.
For these reasons, we recommend that you make your existing content compatible with the web publishing application.
Switching your old web site content so that it is compatible with the web publishing application involves just a few steps:
1 Move your Web Publishing folder off your Desktop to another location.
This folder is the My Web Site/Home Page folder, renamed. It contains your existing content, unchanged. Moving this folder archives its contents, so that you don't lose them as you switch over.
2 Open Web Publishing from the menu or navigation bar.
This creates a new Web Publishing folder on your Desktop. This will be your new web publishing environment.
3 Remove any specially named home page document in your old content.
Web publishing can't work properly with content that includes a document named home page, index.htm/.html, home.htm/.html, or default.htm/.html.
You can either rename your old home page document before copying it, or copy its contents to a web page created in the Web Publishing folder on your Desktop.
4 Copy your content from the archived Web Publishing folder to the Web Publishing folder on your Desktop.
We recommend that you do this one page at a time and view each page on the web, to isolate any problems.
When all content has been copied over safely, you can delete the archived Web Publishing folder.
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